Living with Snakes

As a child I tried with seeds to grow stones – daft kid or what? Now I do not see the fun in growing Lithopes, due to the early aversion thereapy, but each to their own.

A happy and pleasant surprise has just arrived through the post at home.

“Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.” Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

Garden Sprouts is a program I run at the South Carolina Botanical Garden that is designed for preschoolers and caregivers. This class takes place once a week for three months every spring and fall. The goal is to share age-appropriate nature-based activities with children, who are mostly three to five years old, but sometimes younger or older. Over time I have learned the caregivers also learn things they never knew, enjoy the activities immensely, and are able to connect more deeply to the natural world through this program. The structure of this hour-long program is three-fold, we begin inside with a book related to the theme of the day, a walk or outdoor activity, and finally a craft. In this blog, I would like to share some of the books, outdoor activities, and crafts we have done in this class.

Want to add a tropical flair to your garden this spring? Elephant ears will add a bold statement to a filtered sun or high shade spot. These striking “drama queens” of the garden may be either in genera Colocasia or Alocasia. The easiest way to tell these beauties apart is that colocasias (Colocasia esculenta) will have leaves that point downward, and alocasia (Alocasia species) leaves will point upward. Depending on the species or cultivar of each genus, the size can range from 3 to 10 feet tall and 2 to 10 feet in width. Both types of elephant ears are native to the tropical regions of Southeastern Asia.

In South Carolina, where many of our ponds have been constructed in clay soils, pond water quality may be less than ideal for fish management. Liming can be an important step in a productive and healthy fish pond as lime can improve pH, hardness, and alkalinity conditions, all important factors in fish health. For highly-fished, low-flow ponds where fertilization may be needed to support a beneficial phytoplankton community, liming may be required for effective fertilizer applications. (Contact your local Extension agent to find out more information on pond fertilization and if it is appropriate for your pond.)

A thriving hemp industry is emerging in South Carolina despite some growing pains. When the South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA) received approval for the state hemp plan under the USDA early in 2020, over 350 farmers in the state obtained licenses, and 220 farmers obtained licenses in 2021 to grow hemp for its valuable flowers. The decline in applications for licenses to grow hemp between the two years was due to nationwide overproduction of floral hemp in 2020, which prevented some farmers from selling their product. As the industry matures, these supply and demand issues are working themselves out across the country in the floral hemp industry as hemp grown for other products that utilize its fiber parts and seeds is on the rise. We see federal agencies implementing new rules, more grant opportunities for hemp research available, and better banking and insurance options for farmers coming online.

Each year the South Carolina Department of Agriculture puts out a call for applications to farm hemp in the state. In 2022 nearly two hundred farmers were issued permits to grow industrial hemp in South Carolina.

What controls are in place at Clemson University (CU) to ensure compliance with state and federal hemp farming regulations? Clemson University’s Regulatory & Public Service Program works closely with the South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA) Hemp Farming Program (as authorized by SC Code Ann. 46-55-10 et seq.) to ensure all program requirements for working with Industrial Hemp are met and that all CU employees and the public are protected.

This is an Eastern garter snake. These nonvenomous snakes are pretty common in South Carolina and are active most of the year.

Andrew, who is now assistant director of the Chicago Botanic Garden, is past president of Magnolia Society International’s board of directors, and remains a member of the society’s board. In his tenure over 20 years as curator at Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Andrew built the magnolia collection from about 50 to more than 200 cultivars. That’s a lot of magnolias.Now Andrew Bunting is author of a book on the queen of flowering trees, called “The Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias,” just out from Timber Press as part of an ongoing series on various distinctive genera of plants.We talked magnolias on my public-radio show and podcast. Read along while you listen in to the April 25, 2016 edition of the podcast using the player below (or at this link)–and even learn how to train a magnolia or any w

FIRST THINGS FIRST, OR SO THE SAYING GOES. And so a normal spring goes, too–if there is ever such a thing again.